Minecraft news » Minecraft Annoucements at E3: Cross-Platform Realms, Addons for Non-Desktop, & More

Microsoft just announced something huge at their E3 conference: a number of upcoming changes to Minecraft that we're sure you'll love, including cross platform play, texture packs and addons!

First thing on the list is one of the biggest: cross-platform Realms compatibility! In the demo, a player on their iPad was sharing space on their personal Realms server with a player on XBOX, seamlessly. This is a HUGE step in cross-platform compatibility, and marks only the beginning of being able to play with your friends, no matter where they are, or what their preferred gaming platform is!

Addons and Texture Packs are coming in the fall of 2016 to Minecraft Pocket Edition and Minecraft Windows 10 Edition, bringing the ability to modify and expand your Minecraft world in many new and exciting ways! Xbox and Playstation will receive support for Addons and Texture Packs in 2017, uniting the platforms in their functionality. Until today, only the desktop Java version was able to have mods and plugins of any notable sort, with console players having texture packs only. At the moment, it seems that such addons might have a distribution platform similar to the Steam marketplace, though it is not known at this time how they will be created and distributed. More to come on this soon!

Minecon 2016 in Anaheim, CA will bring with it more details and announcements for the future of Minecraft, though what was revealed at E3 was pretty profound in its own right. What does this mean for the future of the game? Cross-compatibility with all versions everywhere? Addons for all? It's hard to say for certain, but one thing is clear: Minecraft is not slowing down, and the future looks bright for everyone's favorite sandbox!

As part of their journey to unite players across all platforms, cross-platform multiplayer is available now on Minecraft Xbox, iOS, Android and Windows 10 in The Friendly Update, through Minecraft Realms. Players on any of these platforms are now able to launch their own servers that are available 24/7.